Saanich man challenged by inflation donates food to help those struggling more

Like so many others, Isaac was feeling deflated by inflation.

“Everything has gone higher. Our pay is still the same,” Isaac says. “It’s chaos.”

When you have to pay skyrocketing gas prices to drive seven days a week between two full-time jobs, to try and afford the ballooning grocery bill for your family of six, it can feel overwhelming.

“It breaks my heart that things aren't the way Canada used to be,” Isaac says.

When we first met Issac, he told us about the sacrifices he made moving to Canada to make a better life for his family, before returning to Ghana for a visit.

“I wasn’t happy by what I saw,” Isaac says. “So I decided to do something about it.”

Isaac spent the next couple years working 70 hour weeks and accepting book donations, so he could finance the construction of a library in his hometown, and fill the shelves with hope.

“[It’s] to keep them reading, to keep them learning,” Isaac says. “So that somebody can someday also come to the school and be like me.”

The sort of person who recognizes the challenges facing his family and realizes there’s always others suffering even more.

“Any little thing you can do for people, just do it," he says.

So Issac contacted an organization that redistributes surplus products sourced from businesses that can no longer sell them, rented a storage unit, and started filling it with more than 18 kilograms of packaged food.

“I don’t have any money in the bank,” Isaac says. “But whatever I have, I’d like to share.”

What Isaac has is the heart to spend what little extra time he has to also distribute flyers around the neighbourhood, inviting 100 families to collect the food he’s amassing for free.

Isaac says he will be handing out the food this Sunday at 11 a.m. in the parking lot of Victoria’s Burnside Gorge Community Centre.

“This country has helped me a lot,” Isaac says. “I think it’s time for me to give back.”